What if cane fighting remained as the way to settle disputes in the Senate, instead of the filibuster?
Politicians in the U.S. used to squash their beefs by smacking each other in the head with canes. Gold-tipped canes. The filibuster replaced the practice in the Senate, and reasoned discourse continues within the hallowed Senate chambers to this day…
Alex shows us the dangers of honor culture. Colin rambles about the failure of the filibuster across time.
Sorry about the audio quality in this one! It doesn't reflect the sound of the rest of our episodes. Our hosts really blew it on this one.
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Edited by Hannah Burkhardt
Hosted by Alex Smith, Cody Sharp, and Colin Sharp.
Milktoast Media LLC
Show Sources (Fact check us! Heard something wrong? Let us know.):
Hoffer, William James H. The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
“The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner.” U.S. Senate: The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner, May 4, 2020.
“Canefight! Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner.” ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association. Accessed November 9, 2020.
Little, Becky. “Violence in Congress Before the Civil War: From Canings and Stabbings to Murder.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, July 24, 2019.
Fisk, Catherine, and Erwin Chemerinksy. “The Filibuster.” Stanford Law Review 49 (1997): 181–254.
McKay, Brett & Kate. “Manly Honor Part V: Honor in the American South.” The Art of Manliness, September 26, 2020.
Bilefsky, Dan. “Sworn to Virginity and Living as Men in Albania.” The New York Times. The New York Times, June 23, 2008.
Mann, Thomas E., and Norman J. Ornstein. “Finding the Common Good in an Era of Dysfunctional Governance.” Daedalus, vol. 142, no. 2, 2013, pp. 15–24. JSTOR.
Coudert, Allison. “Judicial Duels Between Husbands And Wives.” Notes in the History of Art, vol. 4, no. 4, 1985, pp. 27–30. JSTOR.
Kane, Paul. “Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees”. Washington Post. Nov. 21, 2013.
Bryan, William Jennings, and Francis W. Halsey. The World's Famous Orations. II, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1906.
Little, Becky. “How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic”. History.com.
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